The International Olympic Committee (IOC) exercises ironclad control over all aspects of the Olympic Games. They make the rules. And if their rules conflict with the rules of international sports governing bodies, their rules prevail.
This is the case with the two male boxers with male chromosomes, male muscles, and male stamina who are competing against women at the Paris Olympics. The International Boxing Association (IBA) ruled last year that AImane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan were ineligible for an undisclosed reason.
Reports that Khelif failed a blood test are incorrect. The IBA now says the test they administered was “a separate and recognized test." that disqualified him. But the IOC doesn't administer such "gender tests," so the two were eligible to compete in the Paris Olympics.
"The IOC is saddened by the abuse that the two athletes are currently receiving," the IOC said in a statement Thursday. "Every person has the right to practice sport without discrimination."
Rather than sit down and resolve the issues relating to gender, the IOC simply stripped the IBA of its recognition and took over the boxing competition. The stated reason was "finance and governance issues," according to ESPN. But the real reason is that the IBA is a creature of the Russian gas giant Gazprom and the IOC has been at war with the IBA over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's a hot mess, and the IOC stripping the IBA of its authority had more to do with international politics than the eligibility issue.
Each sport at the Olympics has its own international governing body. They are overseen by the IOC, but are essentially independent bodies of sports governance. The IOC claims that the IBA decision to ban the boxers was "arbitrary." Indeed, the IBA apparently invented a reason to ban Khelif at the World Championships just before the gold medal bout.
"These two athletes were the victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision by the IBA," the IOC said in its statement. "Towards the end of the IBA World Championships in 2023, they were suddenly disqualified without any due process."
Khelif and Lin (who fights on Friday) have not announced that they are "transgender." They have only said they are women and wish to compete as women. This is apparently good enough for the IOC.
Defenders of the IOC point out that Khelif and Lin have both been fighting in international competitions for years and have been beaten by women. Khelif lost in the quarterfinals in the Tokyo Olympics and Lin lost in the round of 16 of a different weight class.
There has been speculation that both men suffer from a condition known as DSD, a rare condition that only affects between 0.05 and 1 percent of the population. "Also called 'intersex' conditions, DSDs can result in outwardly female individuals having male chromosomes or anatomy," according to the Daily Mail.
The subject of DSDs, and the potential advantage women with these conditions may have, has become a subject of controversy at this year's Olympics.
At the centre of the storm is Khelif who was banned from a previous women's international competition event after tests reportedly found she had 'male sex chromosomes' leading to comments she is a 'biological male'.
At the time International Boxing Associate president, Umar Kremlev, claimed the tests had proven Khelif 'had XY chromosomes', which are an indicator someone is male.
He added that they 'uncovered athletes who were trying to fool their colleagues and pretend to be women'.
However, and to great controversy, she was cleared to enter the Paris games.
Are they men or women? In Khelif's case, he lives his life, at least sometimes, as a man.
If Khelif and/or Lin have an "intersex" condition of some kind, the only fair way to judge them is by what their chromosomes tell us. Otherwise, the Olympics should drop the two-gender competition structure and create many more genders under which athletes like Khelif and Lin can compete.
If the Olympics were all about "fairness," that's what they should do.
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